DEATH MUNCHKIN!

A disgustingly overpowered fantasy role-playing game based on the FUDGE system

by Roger M. Wilcox Last updated 3-April-2002

Legal notices:

        DISCLAIMER
        The following materials based on FUDGE, entitled Death Munchkin!, are
        created by Roger M. Wilcox and made available by same, and are not
        authorized or endorsed in any way by Steffan O'Sullivan or any
        publisher of other FUDGE materials.  Neither Steffan O'Sullivan or
        any publisher of other FUDGE material is in any way responsible for
        the content of these materials.  Original FUDGE materials (c)
        Copyright 1992-1995 Steffan O'Sullivan, All Rights Reserved.

   ABOUT FUDGE
        FUDGE is a role-playing game written by Steffan O'Sullivan, with
        extensive input from the Usenet community of rec.games.design.  The
        basic rules of FUDGE are available on the internet via anonymous ftp
        at ftp.csua.berkeley.edu, and in book form or on disk from Grey
        Ghost Games, P.O. Box 838, Randolph, MA 02368.  They may be used
        with any gaming genre.  While an individual work derived from FUDGE
        may specify certain attributes and skills, many more are possible
        with FUDGE.  Every Game Master using FUDGE is encouraged to add or
        ignore any character traits.  Anyone who wishes to distribute such
        material for free may do so - merely include this ABOUT FUDGE notice
        and disclaimer (complete with FUDGE copyright notice).  If you wish
        to charge a fee for such material, other than as an article in a
        magazine or other periodical, you must first obtain a royalty-free
        license from the author of FUDGE, Steffan O'Sullivan, P.O. Box 465,
        Plymouth, NH 03264.

1. Introduction

FUDGE is one of the most flexible role-playing game frameworks around. It is adaptable to nearly any genre, gives the GM an inordinate amount of freedom in character creation and action resolution, and abounds with alternate rules that are treated as simply suggestions. It is geared toward getting the dice rolling out of the way as quickly as possible so that more time can be spent on role-playing and on the enjoyment of both the players and the GM.

But what good is "role-playing" or "having a good time" if your main objective is to WIN?! You are a munchkin-style player. A powergamer. A twink. A combat wombat. A disgusting character. Rescuing the princess or restoring harmony to the galaxy are only inconvenient annoyances on the road to your real objective of acquiring wealth and experience points. You know in your heart of hearts that the true purpose of so-called "role-playing" games is to make your character into the most powerful killing machine around, capable of beating other characters or monsters or gods into a bloody pulp at the flick of your little finger. You want bragging rights.

Enter Death Munchkin!.

The goal of the Death Munchkin! system is to out-Synnibar The World of Synnibar, out-Aberrant Aberrant, and out-SenZar SenZar. It provides a complete, detailed system and setting for munchkin-style role-playing as well as eight, ahem, "adventures" to get your characters started on their quest for power, and a random underground labyrinth generator to enable them to keep on killing things and amassing treasure without limit. It even comes with a small sampling of the mega-powerful creatures on other planes, for when your characters get powerful enough to obliterate a roomful of oversized psychic vampire dragons in three seconds flat. Characters begin at quite competent power levels, and progress is rapid.

Little attention has been paid to making the game world into a rich, cohesive setting. Munchkins don't care about mythical history or political intrigue or the local economy; they're much too busy killing things and looting the corpses to notice such trivialities. I suppose you, as the GM, could go to the trouble of contriving a complicated setting and peopling your adventure with deep and interesting NPCs, but they'll probably get killed the instant they meet the player-characters anyway, so I would suggest you save yourself the heartache right now and just concentrate on picking monsters of the appropriate toughness.

Ostensibly, the World of Death Munchkin! is supposed to vaguely resemble the medieval-esque fantasy worlds that populate such Tolkien-like role-playing games as AD&D and RuneQuest. However, the first question a munchkin will ask in such a game setting, when told that he cannot start the game with a Wand of Infinite Fireballs, is "Then can I have an AK-47?". I have attempted to answer such deep and probing questions by providing a short list of modern and futuristic weapons and vehicles. Pretend that there was a rip in the spacetime continuum which allowed future technology to fall into medieval hands. Or that the game really takes place in the distant future after the fall of civilization and trolls are really mutants. Or something. Just don't forget that if a player-character can get hold of a wide-angle disintegrator pistol, this means a monster can, too....

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DEATH MUNCHKIN!

A disgustingly overpowered fantasy role-playing game based on the FUDGE system

Table of Contents

1. Introduction